The Only Guide to Alternative Investments You'll Ever Need: The Good, the Flawed, the Bad, and the Ugly

The rewards of carefully chosen alternative investments can be
great. But many investors don’t know enough about unfamiliar
investments to make wise choices. For that reason, financial
advisers Larry Swedroe and Jared Kizer designed this book to bring
investors up to speed on the twenty most popular alternative
investments:

Acknowledgments.Introduction.A Travel Guide to Alternative Investments.Modern Portfolio Theory.The Good, the Flawed, the Bad, and the Ugly.

PART 1 The Good.
Chapter 1 Real Estate.
Historical Returns and Risk: U.S. Real Estate, U.S. Equities,
and International Equities.
The Diversification Benefits of REITs.
Benefits of Diversification: Sample Portfolios.
Asset Location and Real Estate.
Recommended Investment Vehicles.
International Real Estate.
DRW, RWX, and WPS.
DFA International Real Estate Securities Portfolio.
Tax Considerations.
The Wrap-Up on International REITs.
Your Home and the Asset Allocation Decision.
Wrap-Up on the Home as an Investment.
Wrap-Up on Direct Ownership.
Summary.

Chapter 5 Fixed Annuities.
How Long Do Payments Continue?
Determinants of Payment Size.
The Benefits of Annuitization.
Mortality Credits Make It Possible.
When Annuities Can Be the Right Choice.
Evidence from Academia.
When to Purchase a Fixed Annuity.
Inflation-Indexed Immediate Annuities.
Summary.

Larry E. Swedroe is a principal and the director of research
for Buckingham Asset Management, LLC (www.bamservices.com). He is
the author of Wise Investing Made Simple, The Only Guide
to a Winning Investment Strategy You’ll Ever Need,
What Wall Street Doesn’t Want You to Know, Rational
Investing in Irrational Times, and The Successful Investor
Today. He also coauthored The Only Guide to a Winning Bond
Strategy You’ll Ever Need. Swedroe has an MBA in finance
from New York University.

Jared Kizer, CFA, previously worked as an investment adviser
for Buckingham Asset Management, LLC, and authored this book with
Larry while he worked there. He has published articles on investing
in the Journal of Portfolio Management, Journal of
Indexes, and for indexuniverse.com. Kizer has a master’s
degree in finance from Washington University in St. Louis.

“A timely and valuable book. The authors describe twenty
alternatives to investing in traditional U.S. stocks and bonds, and
how they work. They tell you which ones to walk away from, which to
consider (carefully!), and how to get involved. These are
good-sense judgments that every investor should pay attention
to.”
—Jane Bryant Quinn
Author, Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy
People

“Larry Swedroe and Jared Kizer have written a different sort
of investment book, and one that has been sorely needed: a
comprehensive guide to the theory, peer-reviewed literature, and
practical nitty-gritty of actually deploying portfolio assets. It
is a gold mine for even the most experienced of practitioners, and
a vital lifeline for small investors. This volume is destined to
become the most marked and Post-it–noted tome on the average
investment shelf.”
—William Bernstein
Author, The Intelligent Asset Allocator and The Four
Pillars of Investing

“What’s missing in your library? Larry’s new
Alternative Investments! You’ve already got tons of
books on stocks, bonds, and funds. The Only Guide to Alternative
InvestmentsYou’ll Ever Need is all about the
future of investing, the new stuff that’ll give you an edge
in the twenty-first century. An absolute must-read!”
—Paul B. Farrell, JD, PhD
Columnist, DowJones-MarketWatchAuthor, The Millionaire Code, The Winning
Portfolio, and The Lazy Person’s Guide to
Investing

“Swedroe and Kizer provide a thorough analysis of the pros
and cons of each alternative investment. They recommend
‘good’ alternatives to add to a diversified portfolio
of high-grade bonds and stocks. Perhaps more important, they warn
investors about the dangers of truly ‘bad’ and
‘ugly’ alternatives."
—Dr. William Reichenstein, CFA
Pat and Thomas R. Powers Chair in Investment Management, Hankamer
School of Business, Baylor University

“Swedroe and Kizer have sorted through the clutter and
confusion of alternative investments to provide the authoritative
voice on these much hyped and frequently misunderstood financial
products. Kudos to them for sharing their wisdom in a manner that
can be easily understood by all.”
—Bill Schultheis
Author, The Coffeehouse Investor

“What a great service this book is to the investing
community! As investors reach out for higher returns, many will
venture into the higher-risk category known as alternative
investments. For those who are so tempted, this book provides an
invaluable guide.”
—Edward R. Wolfe, PhD
Professor of Finance and Director of the Financial Planning
Program, Western Kentucky University

“At the risk of being clichéd, Swedroe has done it
again! I make it a point to read every book written by him. This
time, it’s all about alternative investments, and Swedroe,
running true to form, tells it exactly as it is. He pulls no
punches, he holds nothing back. If he doesn’t like something,
he says so. If emerging markets equities are downright risky, he
doesn’t mince his words or try to put a puffy spin on it.
That is what makes reading Swedroe so fascinating.”
—Stuart Kahan
Executive editor, CPA Wealth Provider

“For investors looking to go beyond an S&P 500 Index fund
and a bond fund—and every investor should—don’t
make a move until you’ve read The Only Guide to
Alternative Investments You’ll Ever Need. Full of
historical evidence, practical advice, and specific investment
ideas, this book provides a blueprint for what to include and what
to avoid in an intelligently constructed portfolio.”
—Robert Brokamp
Editor, The Motley Fool’s Rule Your Retirement service

“As a financial journalist, I’ve been recommending
Larry Swedroe’s books for years because they are filled with
invaluable advice that can make any reader a more successful
investor. I will now be adding The Only Guide to Alternative
Investments You’ll Ever Need to my favored reading
list.
—Lynn O’Shaughnessy
Financial journalist and author, The College Solution

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